COVID-19 and peacebuilding: disruption, adaptation and transformation

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The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted peacebuilding. All travel has been halted and new ways of working have had to be developed. Programmes have had to be reviewed and adapted to the new circumstances. In most cases, international staff are now working remotely, and national and local peacebuilders now have to continue the work on their own.   Read more

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Coping with COVID-19: the role of public trust and cohesion in societal resilience

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Public trust in governance and institutions has emerged as an important element that determines the resilience of a society to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. This helps to explain why some governments have been able to maintain onerous lockdowns effectively and why others with relatively strong economies and health systems are struggling to contain the spread of the virus.   Read more

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Should low-income countries decentralize their COVID-19 responses?

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As countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, some have centralized decision-making, while others, including the United States and Germany, have left key policy choices to state governments, or even municipalities—allowing for individualized measures. These varied strategies have sparked a debate about the merits of decentralized service delivery in pandemic response. The OECD notes that this approach can work if sub-national governments receive sufficient support and there is adequate coordination across levels of government. Can this…

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Social and political protests, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, on the increase in Africa

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Approximately 100 days into the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a notable increase in social and political protests in some countries in Africa. These protests reflect pre-existing frustrations with social and political conditions that have now been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 restrictions, especially in the spheres of health, education, politics and service delivery.   Read more

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COVID-19 and Forced Displacement in the Middle East and East Africa

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This background paper presents considerations on how the COVID-19 pandemic is accentuating existing vulnerabilities of populations forcibly displaced by war (refugees, asylum-seekers, internally-displaced and stateless persons), in settings across East Africa and the Middle East. In addition to the devastating health threat the pandemic poses, lockdown measures imposed by governments to reduce transmission are having outsized effects on forcibly displaced populations, further entrenching poverty, xenophobiaand creating new humanitarian protection issues. With the exceptional physical distancing…

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COVID-19 in the Horn of Africa: How can aid help mobile populations cope with restrictions on movement?

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Aid providers in the Horn of Africa have always struggled to adapt their systems and models to the simple fact that people move from place to place. Delivering aid in remote areas normally involves establishing long supply chains that rely on populations being in places where they can be relatively easily ‘accessed’. The refugee and IDP camps of the region, many of which were constructed as temporary locations for the provision of food or shelter,…

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COVID-19 from the Margins: What We Have Learned So Far

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COVID-19 from the Margins was launched at the beginning of May 2020 as a multilingual blog platform, with the aim to give voice to narratives on the pandemic from social groups and individuals invisibilized by mainstream coverage and policies. Two months down the line, the authors reflect on the core threads emerged so far, with a look to the future of South-based narrations of the first pandemic of the datafied society.   Read more

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Will the Coronavirus Fuel Conflict?

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The coronavirus pandemic has led to over 500,000 deaths and strained health care systems worldwide. But it has also had damaging knock-on effects for the global economy and governance. One increasing risk is that these effects will lead to more episodes of large-scale internal violence, including civil war.   Read more

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COVID-19 and resilience innovations in food supply chains

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Food supply disruptions in developing countries during the COVID-19 pandemic have been varied and often severe, especially in labor-intensive segments of supply chains. Tom Reardon of Michigan State University and IFPRI’s Jo Swinnen summarize early experiences in both international and domestic supply chains across various types of firms and commodities. They review a range of innovations developed to keep supply chains running, many implemented at a surprisingly rapid pace—and make recommendations on to facilitate continued…

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COVID-19 seems cooking biggest ever global scam

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The increasing number of corruption cases on COVID-19 funds from throughout the world and involvement of high profile persons indicate that the countries can’t ignore corruption in their pandemic response programs. This has generated the need for a robust health information management system for real-time monitoring of project implementation to minimize the leakage of funds and losses due to corruption.   Read more  

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